Law and Order: Close to Home
by Nero Parham
Summary: An assistant district attorney is found murdered.


Disclaimer: Law and Order is the creation of Dick Wolf and NBC not me.

**OFFICE OF**

**EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT D.A JACK MCCOY**

**SEPTEMBER 1 – 11:30 PM **

Jack McCoy reached over a mostly empty plastic container of Chinese takeout, long cold, to retrieve another file. As usual the desk was littered with papers and files from current cases. McCoy realized he picked up the wrong file and began to shuffle through the papers piled several inches high. He finally found the file he was looking for and quickly spread out the papers raising the pile even higher. He dug his legal pad out of the pile and with the file sheets in his left hand he scribbled notes on the pad with his right. McCoy stood up to get a paper from another file that had fallen onto the table in front of the desk when he noticed a dark shadow move over the surface of his desk and conference table. He looked up to see his assistant Abbie Carmichael standing about a foot away from the conference table.

"Geez Jack don't you ever sleep," Abbie asked.

Jack made a gesture towards the brown leather sofa in the office and said, "When I get the chance."

Abbie shook her head with a smile and said, "That's just pitiful Jack."

"Oh, and you're not just as bad," Jack replied sarcastically.

Abbie was about to make another comment when the phone on Jack's desk rang. Jack reached down and picked up the half buried receiver and said, "McCoy."

"Ah Counselor, I should have known I could find you at the office at this hour," came the sarcastic voice of Detective Lennie Briscoe.

"Detective, to what do I owe the pleasure," McCoy asked matching Briscoe's sarcasm.

"A floater down by the Brooklyn," replied Briscoe losing the sarcasm.

McCoy who had since sat down in his chair raised an eyebrow at Abbie who was still standing by the conference table and said, "Since when do you guys inform us of a murder when it first happens? We usually don't see you guys until need a warrant."

"Since it was one of your guys that got popped, an ADA, I thought you might want to know," Briscoe replied with slight irritation.

McCoy didn't need to hear any more, "I'll be right there, where are you?"

Briscoe gave McCoy his location and McCoy hung up.

"What happened," Abbie asked anxiously.

"An ADA was murdered and thrown off the Brooklyn Bridge," McCoy replied.

"Who was it? Anybody we know," Abbie asked.

"I didn't think to ask," McCoy replied.

"And you want to rush over there and see it at this hour," Abbie then asked.

"Unless you want to help me clean off my desk," McCoy said jokingly while gesturing towards the monstrous pile on the desk that threatened to invade the conference table next.

"I'll get my coat, "Abbie said in a hurry and began to move towards the door that led to her office.

"I'm kidding," McCoy said slipping on his coat and trying not to laugh. "I'm only going out there for a short while to get the basics. Then I'm coming back here to finish these notes for tomorrows motion hearing. You can go home if you want to. In fact, I thought you left hours ago.

"I was going to leave before 9, but I got caught up in that arraignment I've got tomorrow and I guess I lost track of time," Abbie said with a yawn.

"And you call me bad. Go home and get some rest. I'm going to see what's happening and come back and finish some work. I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to," Jack said.

"No, I'll go along I'm awake now," Abbie said.

Jack and Abbie walked through the dimly lit mazes of hallways and cubicles that made up the DA's office until they got to the elevator. Jack pushed the button and the two waited a minute until a car arrived. Both rode the elevator down with weary looks on their faces.

SCENE OF BODY 

**TWO MILES FROM THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE ON THE SHORELINE**

**SEPTEMBER 2 – 12:15 AM**

Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green had been at the crime scene for nearly an hour when Briscoe called McCoy. A 500 square foot area was partitioned off with crime scene tape and the area was surrounded with fluorescent spotlights on poles. The lights shone in so brightly that the area looked like a football stadium on Monday night. Detectives Briscoe and Green had spent the hour talking with medical examiners and CSU technicians and making sure the scene was properly photographed and cataloged. Both Briscoe and Green looked weary and cold and the bright fluorescent lights didn't help their appearances. Briscoe and Green walked to the edge of the area when they saw McCoy and Carmichael walking up looking equally weary and anxious.

"What have we got detectives," asked McCoy while he and Abbie ducked under the crime scene tape.

"Assistant District Attorney Allen Wakefield, Fraud Division," replied Green.

"Took a bullet to the back of the head before being thrown off the bridge. CSU found a single bullet shell on the bridge, a .22," Briscoe added.

"Rumors have been going around about some scams in the Fraud Division maybe it's linked to that," McCoy said.

"Well, either way it looks like he got conned big time," Briscoe said sarcastically.

Briscoe, Green, McCoy, and Carmichael walked from the perimeter of the crime scene to the edge of the shore where the body was located. The body had been pulled fully on the shoreline so that the detectives and the medical examiner could look at it closely without getting wet. The four approached the medical examiner who was busy photographing the body. The ME turned around when he heard the detectives and lawyers approaching.

"Cause of death is a bullet to the back of the head most likely. Time of death will be hard to determine due to the cold water but given the condition of the body I'd say he's been no more than two or three days," the medical examiner reported.


End file.
